Loss or theft of utilities is a problem that many utility industries must face. For example, unscrupulous individuals will tamper with an electric meter by removing the meter and reinstalling it upside down (so that it decrements, rather than increments with utility usage), bypass the meter entirely, tamper with the meter to prevent it from incrementing (e.g. after opening a seal on the meter), cutting cables, and so forth.
If a theft or tamper is detected or suspected, the utility will send out a trained investigator to analyze the situation and, at times, pursue an appropriate course of action with an alleged thief/tamperer. However, utilities typically only have a few of these trained individuals, and often have no additional procedures to readily identify suspected thefts or meter tamperings and deal with such problems.
Other losses or anomalies in meter readings should also be detected. For example, leaks may be developed in water lines, causing an anomalous increase in water meter readings. Alternatively, no leak may exist, but through accounting errors, meter reading faults, or other problems, a customer may be sent a bill having an inappropriately high amount with respect to the customer's actual utility consumption amount.
These and other problems exist with respect to detecting and correcting anomalous data gathered during data collection.